Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Lovely War by Julie Berry

32 reviews

sarahflanders's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sleeson's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is such a lovely novel. No pun intended. Beautiful emotion. Incessant hope. Lavished with love throughout the book towards friendships and relationships. Two worlds merging into one. 
No swearing. No sexual content. I actually put off finishing this novel because I did not want it to end.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

rafafinhass's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Grief, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

cameronreads's review against another edition

4.0

If you ever read a fiction book about war, let it be this one. The story telling was so clever and interesting, and the book truly captures the horrors of war and racism as well as the wonders of love and music. I did in fact cry. 
Also, the narration of the audiobook was wonderful, with a different narrator for each God. I’d recommend if you like audiobooks!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Alcohol

padawan17's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I don't like romances. I usually find them boring and infuriating. But this one is an exception. I adore this book. I love every character, I love that is narrated by Greek gods, I love that it is a romance, but Berry grapples with other issues too. Racism in the 1910s, war, death, grief, it's all there, but it's so hopeful. I cried many times. Do yourself a favor and read this. For me, it's better every time I reread it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, and Blood

mme_carton's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Police brutality, and Abandonment

ididsomereading's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sxrxh_lenx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to like this story more. But this book is SO long and I felt like the gods being a part of the story, in theory sounds really interesting, but the way Berry goes about it by having Aphrodite be on trial made the story convoluted, for me at least. I don’t get why there had to be alternating timelines, one from the first World War wherein we have our four mortal main characters and one timeline from the second World War when Aphrodite is on trial, it just felt disjointed to me. Why have the second timeline at all? Just tell the first timeline from the POV of the gods, no need for Aphrodite to be on trial in a separate time period, it just made no sense to me and I feel like made the book more longwinded then it needed to be.

I did love the build up of the two couple’s relationships, how Berry covers what many people went through during the war in these four main characters. However, the ending felt so rushed. We have almost 500 pages of build up to find out what happened to them in like 5 pages at the end of the book, summarized very briefly by the gods.

I loved the journey, the fleshing out of the characters, peeling back the grim layers of war and not shying away from the army’s racism but rather shining a light on it. I loved the history, the feelings of first love and second chances after one had maybe lost their first love. That I loved, it’s just a shame the ending was so rushed kind of helter-skelter like otherwise I probably would have rated it higher.

Berry definitely did her research for this book, I will say that for sure. There is a historical note in the back where she sites many books and a bibliography as well. So that was not a miss, the care in which she took to tell multiple sides of the war (both without and within) must be acknowledged. 

But pacing was this book’s downfall, too long and convoluted to get to such a lackluster ending… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism